Saturday afternoon was special for Joey Logano.
In a career already filled with trophies and fond memories, Logano (@joeylogano) scored his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and added a grandfather clock to his trophy case. The driver of the Cooper Standard Ford F-150 won for the first time in seven starts in the series and in his first Martinsville race.
But it wasn’t easy.
Logano started from the pole (also a career first) and led 106 of the first 110 laps. But his truck developed a loose handling condition forcing him to briefly slip back in the running order. He was running third when the third caution of the race came as a timely break for Logano, allowing him and crew chief Chad Kendrick to pit for four tires and needed adjustments.
Great pit work put Logano second for the restart when the race went green on lap 148. Logano and Matt Crafton took turns exchanging the lead until Logano grabbed the top spot on lap 206 and stayed there for the next 39 laps.
On lap 245 Crafton nudged Logano out of the bottom groove and took the lead but two turns later Cole Custer pushed both Logano and Crafton out of the way for first place. Crafton caught Custer on lap 248 and aggressively pushed his way past. The contact forced Custer to spin and brought out the ninth and final caution of the race – setting up a green-white-checkered finish on lap 257.
Logano lined up third for the final restart and quickly jumped inside leader Crafton and second place Erik Jones as they raced into Turn 1. He cleared his rivals at the exit of Turn 2 and quickly pulled away over the final two laps to collect the victory.
Joey Logano – No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150: “Chad Kendrick gave me a great Cooper Standard Ford from the time we unloaded. It was a short run truck for sure. About 30 laps into a run it would start to lose rear tires. We were able to position ourselves back up in the lead there and then tires started wearing out again. It became typical Martinsville again with 10 laps to go with a lot of bumping and banging and rooting and gouging. I was able to get a good restart there with the green-white-checkered and barrel off into one and hold it on the bottom and be able to retake the lead and ultimately win. Brad (Keselowski) made a joke in victory lane about the size of the grandfather clock when you win the truck race. It’s the same as the Cup race it’s pretty neat (laughs).”
Chad Kendrick – Crew Chief, No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150: “Winning at Martinsville is pretty special to me. I’ve raced here in a late model and I call this my home track. I got my first win as a crew chief here at Martinsville ’09 so to come and get my second win at Martinsville with Joey Logano is pretty special. Joey did a heck of a job. We had a really strong Cooper Standard Ford F-150 and the best driver and we won the race so I’m pretty happy about that.”